To access a complete list of the Library's subscription databases:
Go to the BRRHS home page. http://www.brrsd.k12.nj.us/HighSchool.cfm
On Left sidebar - Select HS Library
You will be directed to the BRRHS Library Webpage (http://www.brrsd.net/curric/HS/library/index.html) . Click on the link for Subscription Databases. Scroll to the databases grouped under the categories of Business or Biography. Click on the link to the database that you want to search.
You will have access to all databases w/o a login when you use computers on-campus; if you access databases remotely (off-campus) you will need to enter a User ID & Password:
ID: nj08807
Password: panthers
Things to Know
SWOT report is a company analysis that evaluates Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats, often written by business consulting firms that are experts in evaluating all aspects of an industry and its players.
Ticker Symbol is a unique abbreviation of a company name used to identify publicly traded shares of a particular stock on a particular stock market.
Classification codes used to group companies within particular industries:Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) system has been used since the 1930s. North American Industry Classification System (NAICS), developed with Canada and Mexico, groups establishments into industries based on the activity in which they are primarily engaged. This system is more comprehensive.
Keep in mind that your company may be a subsidiary of another company, and you may want to collect some information on the parent or headquarters company:
Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream is owned by Unilever
Lucky Jeans is owned by Liz Claiborne
Cadbury Schweppes owns Snapple
Books To find books in the library you need to use the Spectrum Online Catalog. Click on the icon on your PC desktop for Spectrum Patron's Catalog. Spectrum automatically opens to the Easy Search Screen. If you type a keyword in the search box, a complete listing of books related to your search term will appear on the screen. You can also search by Author or Book Title by clicking the appropriate button below the search box.You can combine terms in the Expanded Search Screen using AND, OR and AND NOT connectors: these are called Boolean Operators. You can obtain instructions on how to use these terms to refine your search by going to this site: Boolean Operators
When searching for people, remember to use their last name as the subject.
Clicking on the tabs at the top of the results screen will sort the list of books by call number, title, author or date. Sorting by call number will show you areas of the library where most of the books will be found.
To print selected titles from the list, hold down the Control key and use the mouse to highlight the book titles that you want to print. Clicking on the Print tab will open the print option window. Type in your name and choose the Highlighted button to print the selected titles. The list of books will be printed in MLA format.
Reference Books: These books will have a call number starting with REF and can be found in the lower shelves in the Library. Just about every topic has a Specialized Encyclopedia. These encyclopedias are usually quite extensive in their coverage and may be used for your research paper. They are not the same as General Encyclopedias, such as World Book Encyclopedia, which may be good for background information, but often will not be accepted by teachers as a cited source for a formal research paper.
Public Library The BRHS Library may not have all of the books that you need for your comprehensively researching your topic. You can search the Somerset County Library’s On-line Catalog by clicking on this link. If you have a Somerset County Library Card you can reserve a book by typing in the Barcode number on your card and pick it up from the Library later.
Suggested Databases:
These databases can be also be accessed from the Library Website.
Business & Company Resource Center:Provides profiles on business leaders and companies.
Start your search using the "Articles" tab and selecting "Keyword" from the drop-down menu.
Select the "Company" tab and type a business name into the "Company Name" search box. You can select the box "Only Search Companies with SWOT PDF" and your search will deliver a SWOT if available. If there are not results, then unselect the "SWOT" box and redo the search. Select your company from the results list. Explore tabs: Investment Reports provides business analyst assessments of company; Ranking provides industry rankings and market shares; Industry Overview provides breakdown by SIC and NAICS codes, with extensive sector overviews.
Publications can be searched by both the SIC and NAICS classification codes.
Business Source Premier:Scholarly business database with articles from 1965 to present. Provides SWOT analysis. Perform a basic search on a company or industry and click on SWOT radio button, or use the Advanced Search option to combine "Company Name" and "SWOT."
If you are looking for infromation on a particualt person, you may retrieve more relevant articles by using the Advanced Search option, and specifying the name in the title of the artilce, by using the drop-down menu.
Business Source Elite: Provides full text for nearly 1,100 business publications, including full text for nearly 500 peer-reviewed business publications dating back to 1985. This database is updated on a daily basis.
American National Biographies: Provides information on deceased Americans only. You can type a person's name in the Quick Search box, or browse by alphabetical listing of a name (use the "Browse" tab at the top of the page). You can also use the Advanced Search option (click on the "Search" tab at the top of the page) to search by additional criteria and characteristics (e.g., ethnicity, occupation, birth date). Citation information is included at the end of the article, but you need to insure that it is in the proper MLA format.
Biography Resource Center: Provides information on living and deceased persons of both American and International heritage. You can search using the quick "Search by Name" box, but make sure that you click the appropriate button below to define the approach of the search (i.e., Name Contains, or Start of Last Name). You can also Browse categories or use the Advanced Search to combine terms (i.e., use Boolean Operators).
ProQuest Historical New York Times The New York Times articles from 1851 to 2001. To print articles you need to select the Print button at the top of the article.
eLibrary Curriculum Provides articles form various magazines, including Business Week, Forbes, Newsweek.
Web Sites
If you are researching a company, try accessing the Annual Report and SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) submissions from the company web site. You will find detailed information about the company in these documents. Also look at the Press Releases posted on the company web site.
Your company's web site. Look at the Press Kit, if available, Press Releases, Annual Reports, Publications, Investor Information, etc. A company that offers direct retail products may have a very commercial home page; you will need to look for a tab that provides information "About" the company, or do a WWW search for corporate information on that company (ex:McDonalds initial web page provides an "About McDonalds" tab at the top of the page that leads to corporate information; Target positions its link to corporate information at the bottom of the page). There are two types of Annual Reports: the "glossy" Annual Report produced for Investors, and the official SEC Annual Report, called the 10-K.
Yahoo Finance You can get a variety of public information on companies through this service, including SEC (Security & Exchange Commission) filings and a list of direct competitors.
Edgar: A repository for company finings to the SEC. Search by company name or Ticker Symbol; look for the 10-K document, which is the company's annual report.
From the linked page, select Search for Company Filings. Select the search option Company Name or Fund Name.... In the search box, type in the company's complete name, or you have difficulty (sometimes a company's "popular" name is not the same as its official name), search for the Ticker Symbol in Yahoo Finance, and use that as your search term. Once you have located the correct company from the list of options provided by the Edgar Search Engine, you can located the 10-K (official Annual Report) by typing "10-K" into the Filing Type search box.
HOOVERS: This business information provider offers very limited free information on companies. You can get company officers, competitors, and summaries of publicly available financial information. Hoovers is a major information provider for businesses that are willing to pay for its reports.
THEYRULE: An Interesting Link for Information Showing How Corporate Officers Sit on Other Corporate Boards.
Website Evaluation Guide
Search Engines: Remember that search engines are often part of a profit-generating business, and as such, they may inject the company's bias into your search results by ranking articles that promote the company's viewpoint higher in the results or even by eliminating certain articles.
(Read this recent article from the New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/28/opinion/28raff.html?em )
Try using different Search Engines: Search Engines :This link will connect you to an alphabetical listing of numerous search engines. As you can see, some search engines can help you to select more reputable websites. For example, try doing a search using:
iSEEK Education - offers authoritative resources from university, government, and established noncommercial providers; organizes results into concept clusters, and also allows users to recommend and rate sites
Clusty : Provides a list of related and narrower topics suggestions.
Take This Tutorial to Learn About How to Select Reliable Web Sites:
Some of the answers to the questions listed below can be found by accessing the "About" tab on a website (usually located at the top or bottom of the web page). This page, if present, will often provide information about the goals, mission and origination of the organization or person that authored the website. If there is no "About" tab or section, you may want to reconsider using the website.
Website Evaluation Guide
Internet Resources: Although a valuable resource, you must be careful to evaluate the source of information. Some questions to ask yourself are: · is the website authoritative (is the author an expert on the subject; usually sites with the .edu, .org or .gov are most reliable)? Look for an "About" link that provides information about the site author or sponsoring organization. · is the website accurate? Cross-check information against other reliable sources. · is the website up to date? Look for a "Last Updated" notation, usually found at the bottom of the page. · is the website biased or prejudiced toward a point of view? (It may still be useful, but use the information cautiously.)
Works Cited
MLA Citation Examples:This link will bring you to the BRRHS Library page, with examples of MLA citation formats.
Core Business Project
To access a complete list of the Library's subscription databases:
Go to the BRRHS home page. http://www.brrsd.k12.nj.us/HighSchool.cfm
On Left sidebar - Select HS Library
You will be directed to the BRRHS Library Webpage ( http://www.brrsd.net/curric/HS/library/index.html) . Click on the link for Subscription Databases. Scroll to the databases grouped under the categories of Business or Biography. Click on the link to the database that you want to search.
You will have access to all databases w/o a login when you use computers on-campus; if you access databases remotely (off-campus) you will need to enter a User ID & Password:
ID: nj08807
Password: panthers
Things to Know
SWOT report is a company analysis that evaluates Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats, often written by business consulting firms that are experts in evaluating all aspects of an industry and its players.
Ticker Symbol is a unique abbreviation of a company name used to identify publicly traded shares of a particular stock on a particular stock market.
Classification codes used to group companies within particular industries: Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) system has been used since the 1930s.
North American Industry Classification System (NAICS), developed with Canada and Mexico, groups establishments into industries based on the activity in which they are primarily engaged. This system is more comprehensive.
Keep in mind that your company may be a subsidiary of another company, and you may want to collect some information on the parent or headquarters company:
Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream is owned by Unilever
Lucky Jeans is owned by Liz Claiborne
Cadbury Schweppes owns Snapple
Books
To find books in the library you need to use the Spectrum Online Catalog. Click on the icon on your PC desktop for Spectrum Patron's Catalog.
Spectrum automatically opens to the Easy Search Screen. If you type a keyword in the search box, a complete listing of books related to your search term will appear on the screen. You can also search by Author or Book Title by clicking the appropriate button below the search box.You can combine terms in the Expanded Search Screen using AND, OR and AND NOT connectors: these are called Boolean Operators. You can obtain instructions on how to use these terms to refine your search by going to this site: Boolean Operators
When searching for people, remember to use their last name as the subject.
Clicking on the tabs at the top of the results screen will sort the list of books by call number, title, author or date. Sorting by call number will show you areas of the library where most of the books will be found.
To print selected titles from the list, hold down the Control key and use the mouse to highlight the book titles that you want to print. Clicking on the Print tab will open the print option window. Type in your name and choose the Highlighted button to print the selected titles. The list of books will be printed in MLA format.
Reference Books: These books will have a call number starting with REF and can be found in the lower shelves in the Library.
Just about every topic has a Specialized Encyclopedia. These encyclopedias are usually quite extensive in their coverage and may be used for your research paper. They are not the same as General Encyclopedias, such as World Book Encyclopedia, which may be good for background information, but often will not be accepted by teachers as a cited source for a formal research paper.
Public Library
The BRHS Library may not have all of the books that you need for your comprehensively researching your topic. You can search the Somerset County Library’s On-line Catalog by clicking on this link. If you have a Somerset County Library Card you can reserve a book by typing in the Barcode number on your card and pick it up from the Library later.
Suggested Databases:
These databases can be also be accessed from the Library Website.
Business & Company Resource Center: Provides profiles on business leaders and companies.
Start your search using the "Articles" tab and selecting "Keyword" from the drop-down menu.
Select the "Company" tab and type a business name into the "Company Name" search box. You can select the box "Only Search Companies with SWOT PDF" and your search will deliver a SWOT if available. If there are not results, then unselect the "SWOT" box and redo the search. Select your company from the results list. Explore tabs: Investment Reports provides business analyst assessments of company; Ranking provides industry rankings and market shares; Industry Overview provides breakdown by SIC and NAICS codes, with extensive sector overviews.
Publications can be searched by both the SIC and NAICS classification codes.
Business Source Premier: Scholarly business database with articles from 1965 to present.
Provides SWOT analysis. Perform a basic search on a company or industry and click on SWOT radio button, or use the Advanced Search option to combine "Company Name" and "SWOT."
If you are looking for infromation on a particualt person, you may retrieve more relevant articles by using the Advanced Search option, and specifying the name in the title of the artilce, by using the drop-down menu.
Business Source Elite: Provides full text for nearly 1,100 business publications, including full text for nearly 500 peer-reviewed business publications dating back to 1985. This database is updated on a daily basis.
American National Biographies: Provides information on deceased Americans only. You can type a person's name in the Quick Search box, or browse by alphabetical listing of a name (use the "Browse" tab at the top of the page). You can also use the Advanced Search option (click on the "Search" tab at the top of the page) to search by additional criteria and characteristics (e.g., ethnicity, occupation, birth date).
Citation information is included at the end of the article, but you need to insure that it is in the proper MLA format.
Biography Resource Center: Provides information on living and deceased persons of both American and International heritage.
You can search using the quick "Search by Name" box, but make sure that you click the appropriate button below to define the approach of the search (i.e., Name Contains, or Start of Last Name). You can also Browse categories or use the Advanced Search to combine terms (i.e., use Boolean Operators).
ProQuest Historical New York Times The New York Times articles from 1851 to 2001. To print articles you need to select the Print button at the top of the article.
Custom Newspapers Articles from 1,000 newspapers around the world.
eLibrary Curriculum Provides articles form various magazines, including Business Week, Forbes, Newsweek.
Web Sites
If you are researching a company, try accessing the Annual Report and SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) submissions from the company web site. You will find detailed information about the company in these documents. Also look at the Press Releases posted on the company web site.Your company's web site. Look at the Press Kit, if available, Press Releases, Annual Reports, Publications, Investor Information, etc. A company that offers direct retail products may have a very commercial home page; you will need to look for a tab that provides information "About" the company, or do a WWW search for corporate information on that company (ex:McDonalds initial web page provides an "About McDonalds" tab at the top of the page that leads to corporate information; Target positions its link to corporate information at the bottom of the page). There are two types of Annual Reports: the "glossy" Annual Report produced for Investors, and the official SEC Annual Report, called the 10-K.
Yahoo Finance You can get a variety of public information on companies through this service, including SEC (Security & Exchange Commission) filings and a list of direct competitors.
Edgar: A repository for company finings to the SEC. Search by company name or Ticker Symbol; look for the 10-K document, which is the company's annual report.
From the linked page, select Search for Company Filings. Select the search option Company Name or Fund Name.... In the search box, type in the company's complete name, or you have difficulty (sometimes a company's "popular" name is not the same as its official name), search for the Ticker Symbol in Yahoo Finance, and use that as your search term. Once you have located the correct company from the list of options provided by the Edgar Search Engine, you can located the 10-K (official Annual Report) by typing "10-K" into the Filing Type search box.
HOOVERS: This business information provider offers very limited free information on companies. You can get company officers, competitors, and summaries of publicly available financial information. Hoovers is a major information provider for businesses that are willing to pay for its reports.
THEYRULE: An Interesting Link for Information Showing How Corporate Officers Sit on Other Corporate Boards.
Website Evaluation Guide
Search Engines: Remember that search engines are often part of a profit-generating business, and as such, they may inject the company's bias into your search results by ranking articles that promote the company's viewpoint higher in the results or even by eliminating certain articles.(Read this recent article from the New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/28/opinion/28raff.html?em )
Try using different Search Engines: Search Engines :This link will connect you to an alphabetical listing of numerous search engines. As you can see, some search engines can help you to select more reputable websites. For example, try doing a search using:
iSEEK Education - offers authoritative resources from university, government, and established noncommercial providers; organizes results into concept clusters, and also allows users to recommend and rate sites
Clusty : Provides a list of related and narrower topics suggestions.
Take This Tutorial to Learn About How to Select Reliable Web Sites:
http://library.acadiau.ca/tutorials/webevaluation/
Some of the answers to the questions listed below can be found by accessing the "About" tab on a website (usually located at the top or bottom of the web page). This page, if present, will often provide information about the goals, mission and origination of the organization or person that authored the website. If there is no "About" tab or section, you may want to reconsider using the website.
Website Evaluation Guide
Internet Resources: Although a valuable resource, you must be careful to evaluate the source of information. Some questions to ask yourself are:· is the website authoritative (is the author an expert on the subject; usually sites with the .edu, .org or .gov are most reliable)? Look for an "About" link that provides information about the site author or sponsoring organization.
· is the website accurate? Cross-check information against other reliable sources.
· is the website up to date? Look for a "Last Updated" notation, usually found at the bottom of the page.
· is the website biased or prejudiced toward a point of view? (It may still be useful, but use the information cautiously.)
Works Cited
MLA Citation Examples: This link will bring you to the BRRHS Library page, with examples of MLA citation formats.